Childhood Dreams
by LostInTheDreams
Summary: Before he ever knew he wanted to be a cop, Takagi was just a child like any other. A robbery changes his view on the world and the people in it when he meets an older, blond haired boy under precarious circumstances. In the middle of his fear, he makes a promise- a promise he intends to keep.


**Childhood Dreams**

Wataru wasn't sure what was wrong at first. His mom had stopped on her way to the checkout area and he looked up at her, wondering why they weren't leaving. He had wanted to get a toy but she had told him no. He thought that maybe she was rethinking her decision. All the kids in his elementary school had one, and it wasn't _that_ expensive.

He was tugged behind her, and as she took a step back he was forced to as well.

"There's another one," he heard an older male say. His voice was kind of funny though and Wataru peeked around his mom's legs to see who was there.

There was a man with a cloth over his mouth and a dark hat on, hiding most of his hair, though he could see that it was short. The gun he was holding was pointed at his mom and Wataru did his best to hide further, so he wouldn't be seen.

"Get over there with the others and you won't get hurt."

Wataru felt his mother's hand, still holding his wrist, shake. He looked up at her, wanting to pull her back. She held him in place instead.

Then he felt a tug forward and he tugged her right back. No way. He shouldn't be going anywhere near a man with a gun and she shouldn't either.

"Tsh. A kid. Give him here." The man took a few steps towards them.

"No," he and his mother said together. He felt her hand slacken and Wataru took advantage of it, running off down the aisle they had just come from.

"Damn it," he heard behind him as he ran. "You, go get the kid, and you, don't you dare think about doing anything else."

He didn't know where he was supposed to go, what he was supposed to do. There was only one exit and entrance that he knew of, but he was sure there had to be a fire exit somewhere too. It was a small store, but just maybe he had overlooked it at some point. He'd never needed to find it before.

"Ah!"

A man came out of the aisle next to the one he'd run down, grabbing hard onto his arm. "Ow, let go of me!"

The man said nothing, easily pulling him back the way he was running from. For a seven year old, Wataru knew he wasn't that big or strong. When it came to the other kids, he was pretty darn near average- in everything from height to grades. That didn't mean he didn't struggle as hard as he could to get the man's fingers off of him, pulling and digging at them with his own.

Near the check out area, he saw that there were other adults all lined up against the wall, eight in total. Off to the side there was the first man he had seen, watching them all, and a third man standing near a kid that looked just a bit older than he was.

Wataru was brought over by the two of them and roughly let go of, tripping over his feet a bit as he was thrown forward. The other kid, a good foot or so taller, caught him easily.

He drew away from him, wanting to run again, but the man who was next to the other boy grabbed him in the stead of his first captor. He hated the feel of those fingers around his arm, trapping him.

"Just stay where you are. This won't take long and then you can go home with your mom."

This man's voice was deeper but the cloth muffled it and he wasn't sure that he'd be able to recognize it normally.

Against his will to do anything else he felt tears start to fall down his face and hiccupped slightly when he took in a breath.

"_Shhh_," the other boy said quietly, watching him. He hadn't done more than put his hands behind his back and stand straight again after catching him. "_Don't cry. We'll be fine. Let them get what they want and don't fight. Then we can get out of here._"

Wataru wasn't sure. He didn't like being held. He pulled a little more, to see if he could get the man to let him go, but that only made him hold him tighter.

The kid moved a few inches to be beside him, putting a hand on his shoulder and smiling. He _smiled_ at him. It made Wataru wonder if he wasn't in with these guys or something, not that he thought they'd bring someone half their age or more to a robbery- or whatever this was they were doing. "If you stay still and calm down, I'm sure he'll let you go. I'm not being held now, am I?"

Wataru wiped away his tears, angry and disgusted at both these men and the kid who seemed to not care at all what was going on. He moved away, getting the kid to remove his hand, the man allowing him to move enough to do it.

"_Don't you touch me. I'm not going to just let them get away with this_." He hissed the words under his breath, wishing there was something he could do. This wasn't fair to him or his mom or any of the people there, and the kid didn't have to act so _calm_ about it all. Sitting back and letting them do what they want wouldn't accomplish _anything_.

The other kid…. There was something familiar about him. Wataru was sure he'd seen him before at some point. The fact that his hair was light and his skin was darker said he likely had some mixed blood in him, which typically stood out.

"Do… do I know you?" He didn't know why he asked. Maybe because there was nothing else he could do right now, and he'd like to be able to at least accomplish something. He didn't care if that something was simply refreshing his own memory.

The kid shrugged. "I think I've seen you in school before. I'm a third year though. I don't see the younger kids much."

That would explain that. He was only a first year. If he was a foreign kid and was older, Wataru had probably seen him coming or going at some point, and his mind had remembered.

Wataru gave up a bit, letting his body relax and looking around. He couldn't do anything being held down, so the kid could be half right. Fighting _wasn't_ the way to get out of this, but just calmly standing there as if nothing was wrong wasn't the way to go either. The adults all looked scared and nervous and he couldn't blame them. Unlike the two of them, they had an armed man with a gun near them and watching their every move, a few of them being forced aside and lead to some back part of the store. He was about to yell when one of those being moved was his mom when the kid next to him spoke up.

"Rei. My name is Rei. What's yours?"

Wataru looked back at the other kid, seeing him look like he was honestly curious about his name at a time like this. They were doing something with his mom! He didn't care about giving out his name. He'd always been way too polite though.

"Takagi Wataru." It was strange that the other hadn't introduced himself with his full name, but he'd put that to his mixed heritage. His Japanese sounded just fine though.

"Okay, Takagi-kun. How about we play a game to pass the time? That should help you calm down."

"Are you _crazy_?_!_" Wataru looked at that man still holding his arm before back at Rei-kun. "This is _not_ the time to play a game!"

"What else should we do then? Standing here and watching you struggle isn't exactly the theater and I can't really beat these guys up. Here. You don't even need him to let you go." Rei stuck both his hands out towards him. "Let's play chopsticks, but with leftovers in play, since I think we'd get bored of replaying the same game over and over."

Wataru really was starting to think this kid was crazy. Being calm was one thing- playing a game while likely both their families were in danger was something completely different.

"You're crazy," he openly told him.

"I think any psychiatrist who you'd get to talk to me would call it Borderline Personality Disorder, but that's beside the point. Want to try?" Rei-kun just smiled at him. "If you beat me, I'll promise to leave you alone."

Wataru wasn't sure what to make of what he said. It sounded like the kid really was messed up in the head. Maybe he wanted to play a game to help himself. It wasn't like he didn't know how to play or anything, but he was still worried about his mom.

Looking over at the door she went through, Wataru put out his hands as well. "Fine, I'll play your game." If the other guy needed it, he wasn't sure if he _wanted_ to win or not, so he didn't agree to the stipulation that had been set. If he could find a way to help, he'd just drop the game.

Half paying attention, Wataru quickly found that he lost. He lost the game after that as well, without even having to use the 'leftover' rule that Rei-kun put into place. The third game he found he had to pay more attention to.

He had a hand dead and another that Rei-kun couldn't seem to get rid of to beat him. He had to keep track of the numbers to make sure he didn't screw up. After a few rounds of the game continuing, he actually got it so Rei only had one hand in the game too. That made him smile. If he beat an older kid at this game that would really be something.

Unfortunately he lost that game as well. He had a new determination now though. No one around him was doing anything, so he didn't really feel he needed to watch them. At some point he was let go of and his mother was brought back out a bit ago, which put him more at ease, and was just standing there with the rest of the adults. It almost looked like she smiled at him when she saw him playing.

He didn't want to just play though. He wanted to win.

The forth game wasn't going so great, but again he was able to keep one hand alive while Rei-kun had issues getting it out of the game and he was able to take the older boy's out after a while. One on one, he was hoping that he'd be able to win. He didn't let this game end as easily, not really hearing the soft voices around him.

"_Hey, you know what?_"

Wataru looked up when he realized one of those voices was his opponent talking to him.

"_We're going to have to continue this game a little later, okay? Can you do what I say now? I'm older than you, and that means I know what's better for you, right?"_

He had maybe three years on him. That didn't make him that much older. He didn't really see the logic in that, but while Rei was still smiling, it seemed like he was alluding to something more dangerous. He wished the other's expression would match his words at some point, because most of the time he just left him confused.

Wataru nodded anyway. What harm could it do to play a different game? "_Hey._" Since the boy was whispering, he felt like he should too. "_I know it's a weird question but isn't Rei a girl's name?"_

Wataru jumped back a bit when Rei-kun laughed loud enough to scare him after the whispering. The other kid quickly quieted down and held a hand over his mouth. "Shut up!"

Rei-kun did his best to stop the laughs before the man's attention waned and he turned back to him. "_Sorry, I'm no magical girl. My name is written in Kanji, not Katakana. I use the one for 'zero'._" Wataru watched as he tried to trace the difficult Kanji in the air, as if for proof that it was the one used in his name. "_And males can have the name too."_

He could have just traced the Kanji for 'beautiful' for all he knew. He hadn't gotten that far in school yet. It did make him blush a little though. "_Sorry. I just never met a guy with that name before._"

"_It's okay. Were you really picturing me as a long, black haired girl in a skirt with mythical planetary powers?" _The older kid flicked his pale hair to the side, showing off how short it was.

"_Sorry_." That only made him blush some more.

"_Okay then, how about you just call me 'Zero'? That way I'll know you're picturing me and not her. And you can drop the –kun. It'll sound weird with a nickname."_

Wataru nodded. That was fine. Any name was fine He was embarrassed to have asked in the first place.

"_Now that that's out of the way, we're going to be playing a different game, okay Takagi-kun? We're each going to have to do what the other one says without getting in trouble from the men here. One order each, and if we mess up, the game ends, since we'll probably get in trouble. We'll play Janken for who goes first."_

He thought that was a _horrible_ idea. These guys had guns! If he told him to do something, even just sit on the floor, he knew they'd get held or yelled at. If they were and they couldn't move, what kind of game would that make that? What if they got shot? What if they got killed?

"_You afraid? I should have known. You're just a little kid."_ Rei-kun, or Zero, turned away from him with his arms crossed, looking way too sure of himself.

He was _not_ scared, he just didn't want to get in trouble. "_You're going to get us killed."_

"_We're just kids. They won't kill us or the adults won't listen to them anymore. Don't make up excuses because you're scared. It makes you look pathetic."_

Wataru huffed under his breath, looking around without trying to be obvious about it. The other two were over by the door now, watching outside. The one by them was looking at his fellow robbers and barely giving them a glance.

He relented with a sigh. "_Fine, but if I die I'm coming back and hunting you down, you hear me, Zero?"_

"_Deal_." Zero stuck his hand towards him, that same smile he had on his face this whole time there. How was he not afraid too? "_Let's see who goes first."_

Wataru put his hand out reluctantly, getting paper at the same time Zero did when they played. They tried again, and he stuck to playing paper while scissors beat him. He sighed. He _really_ didn't know if he'd wanted to win or not but, more than anything, he just didn't want to play and would have used his turn to deny Zero a turn.

"_Me first_." Zero seemed too happy about that for his liking. The older kid had to know what he was doing though, and wouldn't ask him to do something dangerous, right?

The blond pointed to an aisle a few meters away from them. "_Sneak over to that without being seen. If you can hide from him there for just a few seconds, you win. If not, you're probably going to be stuck being held again. It's not that much of a punishment. Think you can do it?"_

He'd thought about sneaking away before now but that was dangerous and he didn't want to be restrained again. The older kid threw a cocky smile his way though, and Wataru found himself taking a few, slow steps backwards and off to the side.

For his part, Zero didn't move, but he did start playing some weird game with his hands that involved putting them, fingers up, and moving certain fingers. He didn't know what it was and found himself behind him before he could figure it out.

It was slow going, and at one point he stopped to take his shoes off and hold them so he wouldn't make any noise against the ground. His 'backing up' turned into moving without turning from the man, back bent and keeping himself as low to the ground as he could.

He almost hit the shelf before he knew it was there. Carefully, he moved his foot away from it, where his heel had touched metal. He went around the other side, fully hidden now, and kept from letting out a breath.

It was then that he realized that he was free.

No one knew where he was and he had free access to the other half of the store. The bad guys wouldn't see him coming if he went around through another aisle and surprised them. Maybe he could even get his mom free somehow.

He stood there for just a little bit, thinking on what he could do. If he surprised the bad guys, they'd just turn their attention on him and he might get in trouble. He didn't think he could leave with both men at the door.

A hand on his mouth was the only thing that kept him from yelping when Zero suddenly came around the corner and was right next to him.

"_Good job_."

They both waited a few seconds while they calmed down, Wataru getting his mouth back in less than a minute as they both moved and sat on the ground.

"Zero, w_hat do we do now?_" He wasn't sure why he was asking the blond. The other hadn't done anything but mess with him and play games so far. He was the older one though, and he had no one else to turn to.

"_We wait. Just listen and watch. You'll know when it's time. Actually, come here._" Zero stood and Wataru slowly got up and followed him farther away from the exit.

He looked back, wondering why they were putting more distance between them. They wouldn't be able to get out if they only hid in the back of the store.

There was a box that held fruit that he was just barely too short to make out. They looked like some type of melon though. Zero went on the other side of it, putting his hand on the floor beside him instead of tapping it to show that he wanted him to sit there. It wasn't like he saw much choice so Wataru found himself hiding there with him.

Zero took out a phone. Wataru looked at it, seeing that it was similar to the one his mother owned, but newer. "_You're mom let you have a cell phone?"_

"_Shhh_." Zero went back to typing and he didn't say what he was doing. Wataru shrugged, trying to look over his shoulder. The message was sent before he could see what it said though.

"_Did you call the police?"_ He knew the adults couldn't - they were being watched – but _they_ could now.

"_If I called the police, those guys would hear me talking, or hear the police speaking over the phone. Don't be stupid."_ The phone was put away and Wataru found himself reaching for it, getting his hand grabbed and held away from it. "_Trust me, okay?"_

Fine. It wasn't like the other guy didn't have a point. He knew that even their whispering was risking them being overheard. He went back to sitting and waiting, wondering what would happen next.

He didn't have to wait long. He heard a crash as the front door was either broken, or slammed open hard enough to break it. Huddling closer to himself, he heard the screams of several women, not able to distinguish if his mother's was among them.

Putting his hands over his ears, he closed his eyes and wished this would all go away.

He was denied even that simple pleasure as the blond pulled his hand away, keeping his hold on his wrist as he went on his knees and pulled him forward.

Besides the voices of men he'd never heard before and the sound of a gunshot that made him cringe and not want to move, he didn't know what was going on.

Getting pulled around the corner and peaking down one of the lanes, he saw a man on the ground, one of the bad guys. He was pretty sure it wasn't the one that had grabbed him but other than that he couldn't tell much at a distance.

On top of him was another man, this one in uniform and clearly a police officer.

"_I… I thought you didn't call them."_

"_The power of texting someone out there who could." _The blond's enjoyment was obvious in his words. "_Took their time getting here though. I texted earlier, after I realized that we were being watched and before you showed up."_

That… that was fast thinking. It likely would have been a bit chaotic while they were trying to round up the people in the store. Because they were kids, it wasn't like they were searched for phones.

"_That was really smart. Can we get up now?"_ He heard talking, some of it confrontational, but it was likely from the bad guys being caught.

"_Not yet. We're very good targets and can be used if one of the guys got away. The police won't shoot children though, so showing up unexpectedly in front of them is safe."_

It really sounded like the older kid knew what he was doing. He said he was only a third year though. How could he know all this stuff?

"_You're really smart. I guess if you say so, I'll listen."_ Wataru watched the police officer handcuff and pull up the man, dragging him out of his sight.

"_Smart. You know, I've never been called that before."_

Wataru turned to the boy, seeing as there was nothing for him to watch now. "_What do you mean? I had no idea what to do and I'm sure if one of the bad guys _did_ get away, they _would_ come after us. I just didn't think that before. You sound like an adult."_

"_I don't think that makes me smart. I just want to be like them when I grow up- No, that's not right. I want to be _better_ than them when I grow up._" He watched the blond smile. Wataru had to admit, he had a sudden admiration for the police too. "_I'm leaving soon though, so I'm not sure how possible that is."_

Leaving? "_Where are you going?"_

"_I'm not sure. I have to move every so often. I've been here a long time already- since I was a first year. I'll be gone when break starts next month though."_

With some of the fear gone, and the fact that this guy helped him hide and calm him down, he thought he might have found a friend in him. If he was leaving though, that would be really hard.

"_If I become a cop, will I see you again?"_

They met each other's eyes. Wataru didn't know if his question was what caused the happy older boy to lose his smile, but he had. It looked like he was honestly thinking hard on the question though.

"_You know, we might_."

Wataru smiled. "_I'll become a police officer then. We'll meet when we're older, so this isn't goodbye."_ He wanted to be just like him too. He wasn't sure, but the boy had calmed him down enough to be freed. He then had made him forget all his worry, and helped him have the courage to get himself out of a situation that could have put him at risk. If he did become a cop, he wanted to be just like him.

"Wataru! Wataru, where are you!_?_!"

Wataru heard his mom. If she was calling him, it must be safe, though he didn't think about that at all as he got up and ran towards her voice.

"I'm over here!"

They met at the end of the aisle, near the front, and he had never been so happy to be hugging his mom in public before.

"Oh, Wataru, I was so worried about you! You were so brave though. Thank goodness you're alright."

He couldn't help thinking the same thing about her as he felt the tears come back. He didn't know why but he started crying hard and couldn't stop. It took his mom several minutes to help calm him down enough that she was able to let him go so he could stand and walk on his own.

When they went up front, the police had everyone all group together, blankets covering half of them as they seemed to be talking to them.

He looked around but he didn't see the other boy.

"Wait a minute." He ran back the way he had come, leaving his mother for a second. He didn't see Zero there though. He went through the store, looking for him, calling his name, but he didn't seem to be there.

His mom found him in the last aisle and put a hand on his shoulder. "What's wrong?"

"That other guy who was with me. You saw him, right? I can't find him anywhere."

"We'll tell the police. I'm sure they'll be able to find him. Come on, I don't want to lose you." There was a bit of scolding in her voice now so he walked back to the front with her and told the police about the other boy.

They didn't find him either though and, as he left with his mother, he was starting to doubt he had been there at all. He had felt his hands on his though. He had to be real.

Wataru smiled as he got in the back seat. _'Well, I'll see you again when I'm a police officer. You promised.'_


End file.
